Circus tents, Bonsecours Market, bike path scenes

Getting down to the Old Port I made this painting of the Cirque du Soleil tents that are there every summer. This time its a circus called "Echo", this time its a circus called "Echo". Echo, echo... you get it. I included the pond in the foreground, its an artificial thing they fill up for tourists to paddle around during summer. It was windy today, and smoggy. 

Cirque du Soleil pond, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

Bonsecours market is in the background, its a place where souvenirs are sold to tourists and locals... they have pretty high quality souvenirs in there including artwork and sculptures. On the right you see the zip line tower... people zip by every so often looking slightly terrified. I know somebody who would enjoy that but not me!

Bonsecours zip line, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

Up on the Maisonneuve bike path I stopped in front of the bike shop next to Girouard and made this painting. Its a pale shade of dark yellow, made with yellow (PY154) plus black (PBk7) and a touch of green (PG7). I cropped the scene to make a more interesting composition. 

Bike shop billboard, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

Looking west from the same spot I caught this view of the back alley of Swedish Auto. A tow tricks sits idle, with a green bin in the foreground. I changed the sign to PJD Auto, although the graffiti, which says "P.P. Weiner" was really there... really creative. Maybe its Swedish for common sense? I mean, weiner was not even spelled correctly, its Wiener. 

Swedish Auto, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

Ferrari money, triangle park, bike path

Riding down Maisonneuve bike path, I stopped at the Girouard overpass and painted a scene of this broken down Ferrari at an auto shop. Its front wheel was bent inwards with extensive body damage, looks like somebody lost control. To buy a Ferrari you need lots of money, like 'Ferrari money', that is a huge salary. Although, maybe you can get this one on discount. 

Damaged Ferrari, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

The old bike path loops around, it used to just end here. Now its a tiny triangle-shaped park with grass and trees in the midst of dense urban Montreal. I removed invasive vines, and put fertilizer spikes on the pine trees over the past few years, and it all looks great now. 

Triangle park path loop, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

The city installed water stations at various points long bike paths. On the right you see traffic along Maisonneuve heading west, and in the background is the Veterans building. It is a good place to stand and paint, there in the triangle park, I have done quite a few from that location. I'll go there when I am tired after work but still feel like painting. 

Water station bike path, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

June arrives, painting in Coffee Park

Taking the opportunity to do some painting in Coffee Park after work, here is a scene of a park bench with a lilac bush and commuter train in the background. Pops of red come from clanging train barricade lights up in the trees. I paid attention to make sure the perspective on the bench matched the perspective on the train and tracks. 

Bench lilac bush commuter train, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026
 

Trains don't stop here so I had to memorize details and recreate it best I could. I noticed a strong sun-highlight on the train, bluish shadowing, and tinted green windows. Trees on the other hand don't move, so I had lots of time to paint its bark. I've painted a lot of trees over the years. 

Tree train highlight, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026

Looking up and towards the West I could see the sun descending behind a tall apartment building up on Sherbrooke street. I painted the sky and sun effect first, let it dry while I painted the previous one, then finished with the building, tree and leaves. I twist the brush in my fingers while dabbing in order to randomize the shapes of the leaves. 

Looking up sun branches, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026
 

The train barricade had a creepy monster look to it which I depicted here in a bug-like creature. It does bug you when this thing clangs and flashes light and prevents you from crossing. 

Train barricade bug-like, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Finally a quick painting of some graffiti on a storage shed next to the train tracks. It had other letters there, not PJD, but I usually swap out the graffiti for my own name and the year, 26. Many graffiti artists put the year on their work, which tells you how long its been since Montreal and its municipalities cleaned up graffiti. 

Graff two tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2026
 

Just in before the rain

They say April showers bring may flowers, but this year May showers brought May flowers, and more showers! Actually it only rained a few times recently, today throughout the morning and later afternoon. I got downtown by bike and made a few paintings including this one of the flowering lilac and white shrubs near Place Cartier in Old Montreal. 

Lilac and white shrubs, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Setting up in the Garden Ramezay I got a view of the condos and ominous sky in the background. I had to paint fast because rain was imminent, and it was time to turn around. I went home after this painting, just getting a little damp along the way. 

Condos Garden Ramezay, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Viger street around the Convention center is being renovated, they are working on the connection from the metro station to Old Montreal. In the future tourists will have an easier time getting around, and by future I mean like far in the future, they will have hoverboards by then and sidewalks will be obsolete by the time they are finished. As usual I enjoyed painting the signs, they even had a sign covering another sign! It could be a Cindi Lauper song... "Sign after Sign".  

Construction signs Chinatown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

This construction vehicle parked on Viger street was idle, I just like painting these things from time to time (time after time?). The blue-green tint on the vehicle's glass contrasted with the yellow-green of the convention center in the background. 

Construction clashing greens, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

This was the first painting I did, stopping just in front of Dawson College where they turned part of Maisonneuve street into to a pedestrian lounge area with benches and picnic tables. With a sky like this I should have turned around, but kept going instead and got some decent painting done. From here on out it is going to be sunny and hot. 

Ominous sky Maisonneuve, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Downtown scenes cool breezy day

Finding a corner to stand on I got this view of the Lucien L'Allier metro entrance with the Bell Center Habs arena in the background. A one way sign completed a trifecta of signs. It was a 'paint by numbers' approach, starting with an outline then filling on the colours. 

Habs other signs, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

On Rue Argyle looking at Rue Guy, there was a teal fire hydrant which anchored the composition of this painting of a train bridge and billboard, interspersed with lush yellow-green foliage. I lost a paint brush around here, went back later but could not find it. I have others. 

Teal hydrant train bridge billboard, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, May 2026

Somewhere along st Jacques bike path there is an old factory called Paper Box Company, 1906. Now its a condo complex. A few old windows are plastered up, and a wing is undergoing more renovations. 

Paper Box Company one way, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

Another view of the Paper Box company. I wonder what the made back in the old days? Must have been shirts and ties. Or maybe shoes and boots. Nobody will ever know. 

Paper Box Company, watercolour 6 x 7" cold press, May 2026

I felt kind of bad painting this scene, on the other side of the EMT ambulance they were helping someone on the ground in Chinatown. Eventually they loaded them up and turned the corner. To make the bright yellow I used bismuth yellow (PY184) with a slight touch of green (PG36). In the background you see the buildings of old Montreal along st Urbain.  

EMT Chinatown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2026

 

Visceral Glow

I was going to call this painting 'RIP Habs' since our hockey team was eliminated from the conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight. At least they had a surprisingly good run and we got moments of excitement. I made a painting on location down at the arena during one of the matches. Instead the painting is called Visceral Glow because it kind of looks like internal organs, and uses a glow-effect technique that I explored with some recent digital artwork. You can click on the digital tag to see all those blogs. By studying the digital images up close, I am starting to figure out how to paint neon-glow effects with watercolour, which is exceedingly difficult to do with real paint. Digitally it is quite easy though... in fact making digital art is like Charles the Gorilla... he was a gorilla at the Toronto zoo who liked to finger paint, and the zoo sold his work to raise money. What I do is much the same. I think using a paintbrush to do watercolours is old fashioned and somewhat obsolete, but I still enjoy it immensely. The fact you can make art with just paint, paper, brushes, and attitude will never grow old. 

Visceral Glow, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, May 2026

Another Digital Dump

Here is the last batch of digital art images I made while travelling recently, they are done with Sketchbook App on Amdroid. In this example I started with 'finger painting' various shapes, then overlaying with a textural mesh, followed by boxes. Contrast is important in abstract art, ideally there are both white and black elements with various middle shades. 

This piece features starburst shape stencils with various sizes... I set the tool to randomize the size, so I just click around the screen with colour variations. A full range of colours are represented, along with textural spots placed over top. 

There is a neon brush tool that works best on a dark background. Overlapping the shapes leads to increasing illusion of brightness. Some textural meshes were added to create a tactile sense of fabric. It looks like a night-time fire show, I though about my Samoa painting while doing this one. 

Primary colour scribbles were surrounded by an earthy, textural frame and grid. To create juicy brush strokes I used a soft pastel tool, it gives a crumbly appearance reminiscent of crayons. To do the signature I zoom in and use an appropriate style that matches the overall composition and colour scheme.  

 

Organic forms were created with pattern brushes. I like this one because it looks almost alien, as if looking into the bottom of an ocean of a moon of Saturn. wiggly larvae wait to hatch into something creepy. 

 

At the end of a previous blog, I did a painting of an old red post stenciled with a number, it was heavily rusted with silver spray paint graffiti. I was trying to figure out how to simulate a metallic glow, which was done here with variations of grey on an earthy background.